An English bishop has spoken about the current “crisis” in marriage as an opportunity to rediscover the meaning of “commitment”.Bishop John Hine, chairman of the Marriage and Family Life committee within the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, made his remarks as a report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested that married people are now in a minority group.
In 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, married people accounted for just 50.3 per cent of the adult population in the UK.
With the number of married couples following a steady downward path since 1997, the proportion of married couples would have dipped below half in 2006.
Although they accounted for 56 per cent of the population in 1995, their number has dropped by between 100,000 and 150,000 each year.
The number of weddings in England and Wales in 2006 was just 236,980 – the lowest number since 1895 and the smallest proportion of marriages compared to population since records began in Victorian times.
"It is easy in the face of adverse statistics to become despondent about the state of marriage today, and to feel powerless to effect any change," Bishop Hine said.
"We tend to presume that marriage as life-long commitment to one spouse sealed by the public taking of vows in a Church ceremony has always been the more or less universal practice. History teaches us otherwise.
"I think the current statistic about marriage invites us do more questioning than condemning.
"Other statistics indicate that most young people start off with a desire to be married but end up living together for all sorts of reasons. It could be that they have a high ideal of marriage and fear they may not be able to sustain this ideal, or think they need to have the experience of living together before they make the most important decision of their lives.
"It could be that they want to wait until they have saved enough money to afford the hugely expensive wedding receptions that are so admired nowadays, but the economic pressures of housing and family mean they never save the means for such a celebration. It may be that, as young people, they have experienced so much pain arising out of breakdown of their own parents’ marriage, that they are scared of such commitment. Perhaps the lack of support and encouragement for marriage in our society today deters them from embarking on this journey.
"There are so many other possible causes for this statistic about marriage not mentioned here, which need to be explored, including the greatly diminished level of Christian formation and commitment experienced by most young people.
"Perhaps, as Catholics, we could start addressing these issues on a practical level by asking ourselves ‘how supportive to married couples are our parish communities, and what resources and strategies could we provide to become more supportive?”
The ONS report suggested that trends in marriage and divorce suggested a continued decline in the proportion of the population which is married but that it was also due in part to marriage occurring at later ages.
Elizabeth Davies, project officer with Marriage and Family Life, spoke of the work of the bishops’ conference in promoting marriage in society today.
She said: “The bishops’ national Celebrating Family initiative will soon celebrate the launch of a new multimedia resource which we hope will increase appreciation for the lifelong commitment that is marriage and family life.
“We hope the Home is a Holy Place resource pack will also inspire more support for, and confidence in, the sustainability of married and family relationships.”
At the moment, the number of cohabiting women and men is thought to be more than four million. Projections by the ONS suggest that by 2031 only 46 per cent of men would have married and 40 per cent of women.
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